Long story as short as I can make it:
Messed my left hand(bow hand) up years ago and it finally caught up with me last fall. Surgery 1 - Dec 3rd 2014. All 8 hand bones were dislocated so the surgeon removed the large bone behind my thumb and put 2 screws in the next two bones to stabilize them. Casted and screwed so back to work(plumber) I went with the docs advice that I couldn't hurt anything with it casted. Really. Tore both screws out and broke one of the bones the screws were in over the course of a few weeks. Index finger tendon and thumb tendon got badly frayed also over the loose screws so another surgery.
Surgery 2 - Feb 27th, 2015 to remove the loose screws and broken bone, stich up both torn tendons and install 4 each 2" pins and another cast w/splints on thumb and index finger.
Now I got instructions to NOT USE my left hand for anything. I was a perfect patient for a change and after a couple months with everything going great - a bad staff infection sets in. Just about lost my hand to it but two "super" antibiotic prescriptions finally stopped it. The Doc wanted to hospitalize me but I said I couldn't afford to miss any more work than I already had.
End of April 2015 - pins out. End of May - staff infection gone and casts done for. 6 mos in casts. Lots of atrophy and coordination loss. Lots of physical therapy and even more exercises at home got it working half way decent but there was no way I could pull my bow back even cranked down to 45lbs.
About the middle of Jul I went to Sportco in Fife and had Ryan B set up a couple of LH bows for me to try. I couldn't bend my L wrist to hold a RH bow nor did I have the strength but I could pull pretty good so after trying a few I settled on a LH Bowtech Prodigy at 60lbs. Started it out at 50 and is now maxed out.
I also couldn't shoot my Spot Hogg Wise Guy release as it felt like my left hand was being crushed by the wrist strap over the surgery area so Ryan set me up with a Scott Exxus thumb button release. Now that took some getting used to , LOL. Especially since my LH thumb still doesn't have full motion.
A couple weeks and two 3D tournaments later and lots and lots of practice, my hand was feeling better to I switched back to my Wise Guy. Accuracy improved also.
My wife, now very happy for me and for her because we were shooting together again and looking forward to another bowhunting week together.
We just got home and our gear stowed late last nite(9/5/2015) but I couldn't be prouder of her and her success on a great 3 x 4 muley and my first LH deer. Her buck was the only legal buck we saw and it was her turn first. I held out until the last 30 minutes of shooting light on our last day to hunt and luckily a couple whitetail does came within range.
Where there's a will, there's a way.
Darn happy to be playin the game again.
Best of luck to all of you this season.
